Women Laborers in Agriculture: A Study on Dinajpur District of Bangladesh

Abstract

It is a field based study to explore the nature of participation of women laborer in agriculture in rural areas of Bangladesh. It has been carried out in Dinajpur district of Rangpur division which is also within the northern part of Bangladesh. This study has been done through social survey method. Using multi stage sampling procedure, four upazilas have been selected out of thirteen upazilas of this district and from the selected upazilas, four unions from each have been chosen. From the four unions, twelve villages have selected randomly. From these villages, required number of respondents has been drawn for the study. Size of sample of this study was 385 which had been determined by using formula of Cochran (1963). In this study I have tried to unearth the various aspects of participation of the rural women laborers in agriculture. Usually women laborers in rural areas are involved in various kinds of agriculture related work. From sowing seeds in the fields to harvesting and storing them in granary, they actively participate in all sorts of jobs related to agriculture. Generally women’s work in agriculture is not treated as agricultural work and so recognition of their contribution is not acknowledged either in society or within the state. This study reveals that women’s work is much more multifaceted as compared to the male persons of the society. There are listed 21 types of agricultural works out of which women alone perform 9 types whereas only three types of jobs are done only by men. There remaining 9 types of agricultural works are performed by both men and women through their joint participation. Similarly, on an average, women work for 37.5 days for 33 decimals of land (one Bigha) whereas men spend only 28.5 days for the same. Study findings show that more than 90% of the respondents engage themselves in agriculture in order to ensure their daily bread. Almost all the other causes of their participation in the same sector are directly or indirectly related to poverty. The age group of 31-40 years has a higher rate of participation and for that reason they earn the highest in the study area. Participation of women from nuclear family is much more (76.9%) in agriculture than those coming from joint family and a large portion of them (29.1%) have no dwelling house of their own. While working in field, nearly all of them (92.4%) faced different types of obstacles. Of the obstacles, lacking toilet facilities in the field, burning sun, their inability in performing of all works, difficulties in maintenance of purdah are the mostly mentioned. Among different seasonal works, their participation is high in weed cleaning, paddy reaping, threshing of paddy, sorting rice, parboiling rice, drying straw, winnowing are worth mentionable in both Boro and Aman seasons in the study area. In winter season, works related to the cultivation of corns, potatoes, green chilies, parable and bitter guard are mostly done by women. In Boro and Aman season, almost half of the respondents (44.7% and 45.9%) earned less than Tk.5000, and it is 81.65% in winter season. This is why; income variation has been seen high in winter season in the study area. There is also discrimination in wage and duration of work in comparison with their male counter parts. Women laborers had to invest more time in working and they also were paid less. Contingency analysis of the data shows that age, physical fitness, marital status, head of family, religious identity, mobility to work etc. are positively associated with wage at 1% level of significance. Similarly in multiple regression analysis, there are seen a significant association between total wage of IRRI and Aman season and the predicted variables (preparing seed bed, uprooting paddy shoots, give water, transplanting paddy-shoots, weed cleaning, reaping paddy, threshing, sorting, rice boiling and drying, dusting off rice, hay making) at 5% level of significance. In addition, in winter season, there are also seen significant association between total wage of winter season and the predicted variables (mustard related tasks, potato related tasks, parable/bitter guard, green chillis, sweet potato, ginger/garlic/onion related tasks, corn related tasks, lady’s finger) at 5% level of significance. In respect to measuring empowerment of the respondents, three indicators i.e., mobility, decision making and political and legal awareness have been taken under consideration with different issues. It is seen that for both mobility and decision making indicators, average indices are 49.73 and 49.59 and for political and legal awareness, it is a little bit higher (57.66). Of the variables, age, education, religion, type of family, connection with NGOs and total seasonal income are significantly associated with empowerment of the women laborers. It is observed that those who earn more are empowered more and they have raised their voices against all kind oppressions in and out of their families in the study area.